If you don’t know me by now (cue up Simply Red), you will know by the end of this post that I will pretty much write about anything. I basically have no ability to sleep on an airplane. It’s absolutely horrible. Friday morning I flew to Tokyo, and since I couldn’t sleep I decided to provide you an hour to hour update of how things went. One would argue that by making this commitment for an hour to hour update, I have basically sub consciously eliminated the idea of sleeping already those people don’t know how many articles I have started writing and abandoned half way through.

This post is not really that interesting, but maybe that’s the point. 14 hour journeys on a plane are not supposed to be interesting.

0:00
My never ending quest to sit beside an attractive girl on a flight (does this only happen in rom coms?) is once again foiled when I realized I’m about to sit besides Mistachio in row 32h. I find out he’s a bus driver from Sydney, Nova Scotia going to Jasper for seasonal work. He looked nervous and said he hasn’t flown in such a large plane before. I wanted to say this is just about the smallest plane I’ve been on for a cross Pacific flight, but I didn’t want to crush his soul.

1:00
I don’t know why I bothered downloading all those tv shows. The entertainment console has a host of movies including Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Artist, A Separation, Memento, Lord of the Rings and even Seven. Just to see what all the hype is about, I just watch the now defunct television series Community for the first time ever.

2:00
The women in the aisle seat in front of me is watching Captain America while eating watermelon and drinking club soda. I think she is living the American dream. The people in the aisle across from me just finished the extra large Tim Horton’s, I put the over and under on their bathroom trips at 4 for the rest of the journey.

3:00
I envy everyone who is sleeping. How do they do it? To just let it all go. Maybe they aren’t making hourly blog updates.

4:00
The first leg of my flight is almost over. I think I watched five episodes of Community. It’s pretty clever but not sure I’d watch it if I wasn’t stuck on a plane. I did make a mental note to revisit the Allison Brie GQ feature from awhile back.

5:00
Stopped over at Calgary’s airport (worse duty free) for an hour which gave my legs a much needed stretch. Was making conversation in Tim Hortons line with some kid. I don’t know if he appreciated the sound of my “ooohhhhhhh” when he told me he was going home to Saskatoon

6:00
My attempts to sleep are futile. I am reminded of Mariah Carey singing “can’t sleep, can’t sleeeep anymore” line from her cover of Without You

6:30
The stewardess gave me the Japanese version of the customs card. DO I LOOK JAPANESE TO YOU! I scream out at the top of my lungs in my head.

7:00
I am hoping the two mini bottles of wine I just polished off will help me sleep. I think I’ve watched like seven episodes of Community now, it’s definitely growing on me.

8:00
Watching No Reservations: Japan on my laptop. Sleep is not apparent for me. Why I watch this show, I don’t know. It’s not like my Tokyo trip will be anything like that of Anthony Bourdain’s. It does give me hope though. That’s all I have at this hour.

9:00
can’t sleep so I took another mini bottle of wine from the back. I’ve decided to do some coding in the meantime for work. It makes me wonder if I’m starting to become one of those people who think about work when I’m not on my job, but the I seem to be among the few who actually like my job so maybe it’s okay? deep stuff here.

9:30
First serious turbulence of the plane ride. in my opinion it’s not a real plane ride until you hit some turbulence. it’s fun for me but some people don’t handle it well. For example when we came back from England the other 3 people in my row threw up. Currently over Alaska right now, about to head over Siberia.

Picture break

9:45
Watching the second episode of Girls on the plane was not the best idea. The people in the row behind me probably think I’m a perv now.

11:00
Moneyball was pretty good. What would of been better was if they had Jason Giambi injecting himself with steroids in the background somewhere.

12:00
Spent the last 40 minutes trying to get some shut eye. fail. Why do I even bother.

13:00
meh. Much like Lebron James, I simply don’t know how to finish at this late stage of the game.

14:00
Almost there! fourteen hours, nine episodes of Community and five mini bottles of wine later, we are starting our descent into Tokyo. No sleep for 24 hours will be tough when me and my friends go out drinking tonight.

Well there you have it, roughly an hour to hour recap of what my flight was like. I am now in Tokyo. It’s pretty cool.

It’s been awhile since Santigold first emerged to the forefront with her hit singles Say Aha and LES Artistes. Since then she has undergone a name change and provided guest vocals on a host of albums (my favorite being her spot on the NASA record). So it came to my surprise that her new record, Master of My Make Believe was her first album since her debut record. One of my most listened to albums this year, Master of My Make Believe is one of those records that’s impossible to classify as it seems to span across all genres from hip hip to rock. The only classification I would put on it is that it’s damn good.

With new album in tow, the Brooklyn artist played a fantastic show at the Kool Haus. It’s a shame that the show seemed severely under attended as part of the venue was curtained off. Having seen a good part of her show at SXSW, I knew what to expect. Armed with two fantastic dancers and a backing band dressed up like David Bowie, if David Bowie was a mega Tron fan, Santigold gave us a show heavy on aesthetics and visual delights. The show included multiple costume changes, choreographed
dancing and also a freaking horse.

Of course, all the visuals in the world wouldn’t have helped if the music wasn’t good. Santigold’s voice is amazing, it’s got this airiness to it that is hard to describe. The fact that she can sound pitch perfect while dancing is a testament to her talent. The set list consisted of a mix of new and old, both of which the all ages crowd easily enjoyed. People were dancing from beginning to end, even forming dance circles near the side of the stage. It appears new tracks like Disparate Youth and Go! have found their place on people’s playlists alongside the older tracks. My only disappointment was the exclusion of the track I’m a Lady from the set.

There are few artists out there more original than Santigold. Her genre bending music has only gotten better as she continues to find her sound. I would totally recommend checking her out.

We Are Serenades hit the Garrison for an extremely intimate show on their first North American tour on May 14th. There were only about 40 people in the audience, doing that thing, where they stand 20 feet from the stage refusing to approach, out of some sort of awkward fear of getting close to the band.

The band played with an effortless finesse of seasoned touring musicians and rightfully so: We Are Serenades is the love child of Swedes Markus Krunegard of Laakso, and Adam Olenius of Shout Out Louds. Laakso have released 4 studio albums and 5 EPs since 2003. Shout Out Louds, I don’t really need to explain, they have toured with huge acts like Kings of Leon and The Strokes, opened for The Rosebuds, been featured on countless teen drama shows that I tend to have a guilty pleasure for, you get the picture. The two musicians met and started a long distance musical relationship, writing songs over the phone and sending each other what they had written. Before long they hit the studio to record their debut album Criminal Heaven. The recordings themselves I find slightly dull. It’s folk, pop, rock genre sounds a bit muddled on the recordings, but after a slow start the music felt whole, full and lush, representing the landscapes and seasons it so talks about in its lyrics. It is an interesting dynamic to watch as there are two front men who share equal responsibility, they mostly sing together, the harmonies melting beautifully together.

I must say one of the highlights of the show was their Neil Young cover of Birds. If you visit We Are Serenades website, you will notice that they have created a “video postcard” of everywhere they’ve been on tour. Each big city they stop through, they do a cover song relating to their location. They finished their set off with the first track on Criminal Heaven – All The Words, forgoing an encore which I thought was a smart idea, as they don’t have that much material and The Garrison is a bit awkward for it.

All and all a solid show, thoroughly looking forward to being serenaded to more(only pun I could think of).

It seems only yesterday that I was in University rocking out to the albums Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia and Welcome the Monkey House. The Dandy Warhols were one of the biggest indie bands around in those days, fresh off a few massive hits, including the defining Bohemian Like You (still a dance floor staple at most indie clubs) and one of the better hand clap songs out there (We Used to be Friends). It seemed like the world was full of possibilities.

It’s now been a decade since that time, and the Dandy’s are still at it. They never quite reach the levels that most people would have projected for them in their hey days, but they are still here, plugging away at it. Their latest album, The Machine was released in April and appears to be a less electronic heavy album than their previous effort Earth to the Dandy Warhols.

Luckily, you can get a taste of all of the Dandy’s discography when they come to town on June 3rd. Courtesy of Live Nation, we have a pair of tickets to give away. To enter, do one of the following.

1) Like us on Facebook and comment on our post about it.
2) Follow us on Twitter(@panicmanual) and retweet this post.
3) Email panic@panicmanual.com with the subject “Not if you were the last contest on earth! / Dandy Warhols” and your full name in the body
4) Legally change your last name so that there’s a duplicate of it. So John Smith Smith, for example.

Other relevant tour dates

5/17 – The Wiltern – Los Angeles, CA
5/19 – Belly Up – Solana Beach, CA
5/20 – The Roxy Lounge – Scottsdale, AZ
5/22 – Emo’s East – Austin, TX
5/23 – House of Blues – Dallas, TX
5/25 – The Masquerade – Atlanta, GA
5/26 – The Fillmore Charlotte – Charlotte, NC
5/27 – The Orange Peel – Asheville, NC
5/29 – 9:30 Club – Washington, DC
5/30 – Trocadero – Philadelphia, PA
6/01 – Royale Nightclub – Boston, MA
6/02 – Corona Theatre – Montréal, QC
6/03 – Phoenix Concert Theatre – Toronto, ON
6/05 – Irving Plaza – New York, NY
6/06 – Bell House – Brooklyn, NY
6/08 – Royal Oak Music Theatre – Royal Oak, MI
6/09 – Grog Shop – Cleveland, OH
6/10 – Metro – Chicago, IL
6/12 – Gothic Theater – Englewood, CO
6/13 – Belly Up – Aspen, CO
6/15 – Commodore Ballroom – Vancouver, BC
6/16 – Doug Fir – Portland, OR
6/17 – Showbox Market – Seattle, WA

So remember the Lilith Fair? A monumental, epic, crunchy-granola, feel-good testament to all that is feminine? Good news if you do remember: You have great taste in female artists. Good news if you don’t remember: Amanda Mair can provide a cheat-sheet to all the Lilith Fair awesomeness you have been deprived of.

Amanda Mair, first of all, is a baby (aka born 1994 – don’t think about it – it’ll only hurt your soul). The Swedish singer has a beautiful, clear, natural voice that neither grates nor wears on listeners. I could literally listen to her all day. More good news: her debut, self-titled album will be available June 5, 2012.

Most of her music on the album is laid-back – easy listening but distinctive enough not to become boring. There are some poppy undertones (try “Doubt”) – as well as some richer (almost soulful?) sounds on tracks like “Sense.” My personal favorite is “Skinnarviksberget” which makes me think of every prince-and-princess-falling-in-love moment from all our favorite Disney movie classics.

So: Feminists, Scandinavian-philes, Disney-lovers, children of the 90s, unite (if you don’t fall into one of those categories, you need to seriously reassess your interests)! Spread the word of Amanda Mair. She’s definitely worth a listen.

Making every feminist cringe with its band name since 2007, Cheap Girls has also been making its fans smile for the past 5 years. The all-male trio (including two brothers – shout out to siblings!) hails from Michigan and produces a sound evocative of 90s garage punk – and we mean that only in the best of ways. The band’s latest record, Giant Orange, has several gems, including “Ruby” “On-Off” and “Cored to the Empty.” Although the band names a glow-in-the-dark arcade/mini golf course serving a vegan pot luck the ‘weirdest’ venue they’ve ever frequented, we’re sure this upcoming tour will produce comparable superlatives of awesomeness. To win tickets and experience it yourself, do one of the following three things:

1) Like us on Facebook and comment on our contest post
2) Follow us on twitter (@panicmanual) and retweet this post.
3) Email panic@panicmanual.com with the subject “Women Should Actually be Valued by their Male Counterparts for Real Though.”
4) Vote for your favorite sibling duo amongst the Panic Manual writers (hint: there’s only one pair).

Tristen puts on a pretty good show.  Not being overly familiar with the Nashville based musician’s work, I went into the show pretty much blind and walked away impressed.  She’s got a good voice that really shines through in her catchy, upbeat folk pop tunes.  She’s touring behind her latest, Charlatans At The Garden Gate, which has received accolades from publications such as Spin, Paste, and American Songwriter, and which her press release describes as “hooky guitar pop that blends country, rockabilly, rock’n'roll, girl group sounds and introspective balladry.”  Yup, that sounds about right to me.  She’s got a likeable presence on stage and seemed to make a good impression on the crowd.  The crowd apparently made a good impression on her too, as she later remarked on Twitter, “ Toronto! We love you and your funny money – thanks for the love.”

I was considerably more familiar with the work of headliner Justin Townes Earle, though I’m still working on digesting 2012′s Harlem River Blues and haven’t yet given Nothing’s Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now a listen.  From what I could tell, nothing off the new album seems like a radical departure for Earle, though one change was apparent: this was my first time seeing Earle backed up by a full band.  Truthfully, I feel like I kind of prefer seeing him as more of a solo act, though it did sound good with a fuller sound and Earle, as usual, put on a good show.  And I suppose if you’re making the move from The Horseshoe (where he played last time he was in town) to The Opera House, you’ve got to step up your game a bit. Well done, Justin Townes Earle.  Now I guess I’d better go listen to that new album.

I love synth. I love the 80’s. I love new wave. I love men that can rock a polka dot collared shirt and look phenomenal in it. I love dancing. In short, I loved Neon Indian at the Phoenix on Tuesday, May 8th. II missed the first act Silent Diane, but after extensively watching online live YouTube videos I can tell you that they are an electronic duo, with that low-fi electro pop sound.

Lemonade, formerly San Franciscoans, now Brooklynites, played before Neon Indian, bringing their electronic sound with influences ranging from carribean, top 40, pop, to house. Their debut album received an 8.3 on Pitchfork, which to some, may mean “yea it’s worth a listen”, to others who care less for Pitchfork’s opinion, may mean it is pretentious drivel. I quite like their recordings, as any music fan can appreciate the wide range of influences that peek out in each song. It adds variety instead of listening to slight variations of the same song. However, their sound didn’t translate so well live. It could be that they were playing a venue too large for their sound as of yet, or the fact that the sound guy seemed to be nowhere in sight, only mic’ed the snare drum properly, you couldn’t hear the vocals, dude didn’t turn them up etc. The lead singer looked a bit out of place, only slightly swaying and sometimes moving his arms. Kudos to drummer Alex Pasternak though, Pasternak was a one man show, literally bouncing from foot to foot as he carried the insanely quick tempo throughout every song. Pasternak’s enthusiastic stage presence and the glow in the dark fluorescent pink drumsticks were definitely worth watching.

Alan Palomo has come a long way since his debut album Psychic Chasms. His stage presence has increased tenfold, with Palomo showing off some killer dance moves, added members to his live sets, as well as a Tron inspired lighting set up. When Neon Indian took the stage, to the largest venue they’ve headlined in Toronto as of yet, the crowd was going mad with anticipation. They kicked off their generous set with Local Joke, and it was a dance party from the start. Ripping through a perfect mix of both albums, he had the crowd genuinely cheering for more (not that half hearted “we know they’re coming back” cheer). They finished off with Terminally Chill and Should’ve taken Acid With You, two of the best songs off Psychic Chasms. Glad to have seen them at small and moderate sized venues, I predict Sound Academy and Kool Haus in their futures.

There’s little better than efficient creativity – and Battles has that combination down. The rock group blew listeners away with its first album, Mirrored, in 2007. Shortly after came Gloss Drop – and now (enter the efficient creativity component) – welcome Dross Glop. The band’s latest creation is unique, yet capitalizes on the second album’s tracks by remixing all of its original tracks via guest remixers including The Field, Kode9, and Qluster.

The result? Awesomeness.

My favorite track on the new album is probably Ice Cream from Dross Glop 4 (the album was released as a four-part 12” series), remixed by Brian DeGraw of Gang Gang Dance. The tempo is varied, the vocals are a fun ingredient in the mix, and the tune will have you twitching, if not full out dancing, well before its 4:07 run is over.

It’s worth checking out all the tracks on this compilation – and the artwork besides (which is another efficiently creative masterpiece: the artists have taken Gloss Drop’s original cover art and spattered it with different hues – another very cool ‘remix.’)

This band has definitely made its mark and continues to do so. They’re on the go so check them out when they’re nearest to you.

6/2 – Chicago, IL @ The Bottom Lounge
6/3 – Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
6/4 – Millvale, PA @ Mr. Smalls Theatre
6/5 – Columbus, OH @ Outland Live
6/6 – Cincinnati, OH @ Bogarts
6/7 – Detroit, MI @ St. Andrews Hall
6/9 – Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo
6/10 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
6/11 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat
6/12 – Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre of Living Arts
6/23 – Denver, CO @ Westword Music Showcase